Rwanda tops the EAC and 3rd in Sub-Saharan Region- Global competitiveness Report 2012-2013

Kigali-Rwanda has moved up by seven places this year to 63^rd position out of 144 countries compared to last year’s position in the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) which indicates that Rwanda (63^rd) maintains the third in the sub- Saharan African region after South Africa (52^nd) and Mauritius (54^th) and first in the East Africa Community ahead of Kenya (106th), Uganda (123rd) and Burundi (144^th). The top three countries in terms of competitiveness in the world are Switzerland, Singapore and Finland respectively.

Speaking on Rwanda’s rise in the ranking from 70^th last year to 63^th this year as outlined in the Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Development Board, Clare Akamanzi said; “we are encouraged by this ranking, it is a result of extensive efforts by government to create a more conducive business environment, increase innovations, improve the skills of our people through trainings and higher education and improve service delivery in order to compete globally.”

The report analyzed 144 country’s competitiveness based on 3 main sets of factors including; Factor driven requirements (Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic environment, Health and primary education); Efficiency enhancers (Higher education and training, Goods market efficiency, Labor market efficiency, Financial market development, Technological readiness & Market size); & innovation driven factors (Business sophistication & Innovation).

Sample of Sub Saharan & EAC Countries Ranking

Country/economy	2012-2013 ranking	2011-2012 ranking
South Africa	52	50
Mauritius	54	54
Rwanda	63	70
Kenya	106	104
Egypt	107	94
Tanzania	120	120
Uganda	123	121
Madagascar	130	130
Burundi	144	140

 Specific Factors of Competitiveness

Rwanda is in the Top ten globally in 11 indicators including days and procedures to start a business, public trust in politicians, Government investment in advanced technology and women in labour force, among others.

In addition, Rwanda benefits from strong and well-functioning institutions, (ranking at 20th position) with very low levels of corruption and a good security environment. Rwanda ranks at the 11th position in terms of its labor market efficiency.  On the production and distribution of goods, Rwanda is benefiting from the effort that has been put in towards improving the business climate.  Our Financial market is also doing very well with a rank of 49.

Rwanda has been improving on all counts of competitiveness factors.  The most impressive climb is on innovation and sophistication factor.  Our ranking is 51st in the world.  In fact the report highlights this: .”  This means that Rwanda is getting ready to leap out of the set of Factor driven economy (which includes 38 countries) to an Efficiency-Driven Economy.  In fact, Rwanda is outperforming most factor driven economies at similar stage of development. 

Rwanda can also pride itself to be in the top brass of countries around the world in various indicators.  As we move towards becoming a middle income country, we will have to address the remaining challenges that are affecting our economy. A number of mechanisms have been put forward to tackle these problems such as the Public Private Dialogue mechanism, EDPRS and strengthening higher learning institutions and human capacity.  Our hope is that these will be reflected in future reports. 

Notes to editor

For more than three decades, the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Reports have studied and benchmarked the many factors underpinning national competitiveness. From the onset, the goal has been to provide insight and stimulate the discussion among all stakeholders on the best strategies and policies to help countries to overcome the obstacles to improving competitiveness.

Since 2005, the World Economic Forum has based its competitiveness analysis on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), a comprehensive tool that measures the microeconomic and macroeconomic foundations of national competitiveness.  Competitiveness is defined, in this report, as the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country. A more competitive economy is one that is likely to sustain growth.

In this report, Rwanda, together with other 37 countries, belongs in the first stage of development-factor-driven economies. Those economies are mainly factor-driven and compete based on their factor endowments—primarily low-skilled labor and natural resources. Companies compete on the basis of price and sell basic products or commodities, with their low productivity reflected in low wages. Maintaining competitiveness at this stage of development hinges primarily on well-functioning public and private institutions (pillar 1), a well-developed infrastructure (pillar 2), a stable macroeconomic environment (pillar 3), and a healthy workforce that has received at least a basic education (pillar 4). As a country becomes more competitive, productivity will increase and wages will rise with advancing development. Countries will then move into the efficiency-driven stage of development, when they must begin to develop more efficient production processes and increase product quality because wages have risen and they cannot increase prices.

 

 Ends

For the full report visit this link: http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness-report-2012-2013/

Contacts: For further enquiries and comments, please write to us at pr@rdb.rw